Servers use and store large amounts of data. The data is typically stored on non-volatile media, for example hard drives and tape libraries. Many servers, for example blade servers, use hard drives mounted in storage enclosures to save their data. A storage enclosure is a device containing the infrastructure to support a plurality of hard drives inserted into its drive bays or slots. The infrastructure may contain a storage controller that provides power and signal connections between the drive bays and a fabric coupled to the servers. Each storage enclosure may contain a large number of hard drives. Each storage enclosure may be coupled to multiple servers through the fabric. The hard drives can be configured into different sets or groups, called zone groups, such that the drives in one set or group may not be visible to some servers coupled to the fabric.
Occasionally a storage enclosure may fail. The drives in the storage enclosure may still be functional and may contain large amounts of data. Re-creating the failed storage enclosure using a new storage enclosure with all new drives may take a significant amount of time due to the large amounts of data that would need to be copied from a backup data source. Therefore the still functioning hard drives are typically moved into a new storage enclosure. In this way the data contained on the old disk drives can be accessed through the new storage enclosure. Unfortunately, in doing so, the different sets or zone groups the hard drives had been a part of will be lost.